


(bitter)sweet

by bog gremlin (tomatocages)



Series: nonsexual intimacy prompts [11]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dessert & Sweets, Food Goo (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), M/M, Missing Scene, Non-Sexual Intimacy, POV Hunk (Voltron), POV Outsider, Post-Episode: s02e08 The Blade of Marmora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:01:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27787168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatocages/pseuds/bog%20gremlin
Summary: In which Hunk, spying on Keith and Shiro, sees something he shouldn't and can't look away.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: nonsexual intimacy prompts [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1838314
Comments: 12
Kudos: 139





	(bitter)sweet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anionna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anionna/gifts).



> For the nonsexual intimacy prompt "sharing a dessert," [originally posted on twitter.](https://twitter.com/boggremlin/status/1331796192439767046)

Keith doesn’t like sweet things; it’s a known constant, almost as universal as that phrase about rich men wanting wives. Hunk didn’t ever associate with Keith when they overlapped at the Garrison, but it was a fact that was easy to believe after getting to know Keith and seeing the state of the cabin he’d been living in. Keith does not give the impression of a man who knows how to savor creature comforts; dessert is about as creature-y a comfort as Hunk can get, which is why he’s always trying to bake cookies. They’re in the middle of a war; it’s an acceptable stress response.

The short of this is that no one ever offers him dessert anymore, because why bother? Keith won’t accept, and it’s horribly lonely to see one portion of dessert-flavored space goo sitting out after a meal. 

But Hunk is nosy, and he likes taking care of people. It’s why he went into engineering: if there’s a problem, he’d like to fix it. Dessert is sort of like an engineering problem, in that judicious application of treats can reduce other frictions in life. Hunk can identify sources of friction with the best of them, and living in a castleship with no way of contacting your family, while dealing with your own mortality as a conscript in an intergalactic war, is a pretty big one. 

It’s not spying, when he follows Shiro following Keith after one of the Paladin family meals. The viewing platform is a public space. Besides: Hunk’s graceful when he wants to be, but he’s not a small guy. If they were looking, they would see him. 

Keith doesn’t sit down in front of the viewing windows (why would he; that might be comfortable), but his posture relaxes infinitesimally when Shiro stands next to him. 

“You didn’t take your dessert,” Shiro says. He’s holding his own cup of space-goo pudding — Hunk tried to make it taste like rice pudding, but he’s not sure if it tastes like cardamom or too much clove — but the dish is heaped higher than Hunk normally dishes it. Oh; Shiro’s added the little extra bit that should be for Keith, but that usually gets added to the other Paladins’ servings, to the top. 

“I’m fine,” Keith says. He’s been even moodier since they found out he’s part-Galra. 

“Glad to hear it,” Shiro says. He takes a bite of the faux-rice pudding. “Hmm, not bad.”

To Hunk’s surprise, Keith responds — he reaches for the spoon and takes a mouthful. 

“Not too sweet,” he says.

“Teeth bothering you?” Shiro asks.

Keith sighs and relaxes all the way, dropping down into a crouch on the floor. Shiro follows after a moment, still holding the dish; he nudges Keith with his cybernetic elbow, prompting him to take another mouthful. 

Once Keith swallows again, he says, “it’s hard not having anything to chew.”

“Galra thing?” Shiro asks. Hunk has never heard another person sound so gentle before in all his life, and he grew up in a loving home. 

“Maybe,” Keith says miserably. He takes another bite of the pudding and hands the spoon back over. “Guess… it’s something I can ask Kolivan about.” 

Hunk expects Shiro to do something with that statement — it’s something that obviously pains Keith to say aloud, and if Hunk were next to Keith, he’d be tempted to hug him. But Shiro doesn’t say anything. He just takes a bite of dessert, sharing a spoon as though that’s not an objectively disgusting thing for him to do. 

“Have you made a list?” Shiro asks after a while. 

“I’m working on it,” Keith says. In the space between speaking, while Shiro has returned to eating the pudding, Keith has drawn his knife and is touching it carefully, pommel and hilt and blade. He doesn’t look like he’s in danger of cutting himself; Hunk has excellent knife safety skills. He knows what it looks like when an idiot’s handling a knife, and this isn’t that. 

“Keith,” Shiro says, firmly, in what Hunk thinks of as his  _ I’m the leader _ voice. “Hey. Eat your pudding,” and he deposits a spoonful in Keith’s mouth, the same way Hunk used to do when he fed his baby cousins: pretending that he’s flying a ship into its hangar. “Nyyyeeearroom, here comes the supply drop, open up!”

“You’re a fucking dork,” Keith says, his mouth full of pudding. His mouth is full, so the words are muffled. It almost sounds like he’s crying. 

Shiro puts his hand on Keith’s shoulder like he always does. Keith leans into the touch, like he craves that sweetness but doesn’t know how to ask for it. 

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Shiro says.

It’s not that Keith doesn’t eat sweet food, Hunk realizes; it’s that he doesn’t know how to ask for good things. It makes sense that Keith would only take what was offered to him, would only accept what someone else thought he’d earned. 

Hunk never follows Keith and Shiro out of the dining room again. Once was enough: it was too painful and intimate an exchange for Hunk to stumble upon again. But he makes sure Shiro’s portion of dessert is always a little larger — just in case. 


End file.
